The writing was apparently on the wall. Washington couldn’t justifiably tag Brandon Scherff again in 2022, so he was expected to be heading somewhere else. On Monday, it was reported by various sources that Scherff would be heading to Jacksonville.
The 30-year old stalwart right guard spent the last seven seasons in Washington. He was named to the Pro Bowl five of those seven years. He is also the ONLY Washington player to be named an All-Pro in the last 26 years.
Terms of the deal were not announced, as the deal cannot become official until 4pm on Wednesday.
If one is to believe previous reports, Scherff had already turned down a deal from Washington to become the highest paid guard in the history of the National Football League. That news came straight from the horse’s mouth – general manager Martin Mayhew – at the 2022 NFL Combine and league meetings.
Is it true?
Chances are that nobody will ever know. And further chances are, that it will be spun in various different directions from both sides.
Regardless of where the truth lies, Washington will probably want fans to quickly forget how good he actually was. That he was good against both the run and the pass.
Scherff Made A Difference
There will likely be a steady diet of, “he was oft injured” – as opposed to the consequent action of thus, which was that Washington hasn’t won very many games when he didn’t play due to those injuries. To wit, they have lost the last fourteen games that Scherff didn’t play in. As in 0-14.
That’s right, check the stats for yourself Joe Q. Reader. Washington haven’t won a single game in the last three seasons when Scherff didn’t play.
They’re 2-20 since 2018 without Scherff. That’s not just anaemic, that’s downright frightening.
While one can make a case that Scherff has missed too many games in that timeframe to just glance over it, don’t glance over the fact that without him, they just aren’t as good. They can’t just “slot player x in” when he’s injured – look at the results.
The ‘Spin’
Players tend to “fall out of favor” in Washington as their time draws to a close, but how much of that is due to the steady stream of propaganda they are fed by the organization? Probably most-to-all of it.
It’s easy to keep a crowd toxic when they experience few positives and buttons need to be pressed.
After all, there are fans that still apologize for this organization every time they make a mistake.
And act like there haven’t been so many apologies that they should really have learned better by now.
So expect Scherff’s name to get dragged through the mud over the next few days. It always makes it easier for fans to digest lost players, when they think it was actually a well thought out plan.
It also makes it easier to point fingers when they find out that Scherff likely signed with Jacksonville for less than Washington offered him. They can then point to that as greed.
As opposed to just another player who took their opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge when presented with the opportunity.
Hail.
And Hail to Brandon Scherff.
The only All-Pro an entire generation of Washington fans have ever bore witness to.
